Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Change Your Marriage in ONE Step

This week, my hubby and I are celebrating our 3rd wedding anniversary!! I know 3 years doesn't seem like long, but I still think it's something to celebrate, so this week I have asked a few friends of mine to share their love stories or just some encouragement for our marriages. Today we have Sarah from the cutest little blog and shop, The Linley House! Thank you so much for sharing your heart with us today, Sarah!

I am really excited to be able to share with you today, thanks to my lovely friend Faith! She's celebrating her anniversary this week and so she asked that we either share a little of our own love story or some thoughts on marriage! Today I want to share something that I truly believe can help you have a healthier marriage in just ONE step! It's taken from Ephesians 5 so let's jump right in!

Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— for we are members of his body. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

If we claim to follow Christ, most of us have heard these verses before, in fact most of us probably had them in our wedding ceremonies. It does seems like a pretty tall order. Good stuff, but how do we actually DO this? I believe that Paul actually provided us the answer to this question, even before he gives is the command, and it is found if we look up a few verses.

Ephesians 17- 20

Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be intoxicated with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit.

It is interesting that Paul gives the command not to get “drunk on wine” but to be “intoxicated with the spirit” – Was this Paul’s 1st Century anti-alcohol campaign? I'm not so sure, but I do think that he brings it up for a good reason. Let’s think about what happens when the human body and human mind are “drunk”

1.You do and say things that you would normally never have the courage to so if you were in your “right mind”

2.You find an attitude of boldness that you don’t normally possess.

3.You are less embarrassed of what other people will think of your actions.

4.You make choices that you would otherwise NEVER make.

Alcoholic drunkenness, is un-arguably not a state of mind that we as Christians are called to live in. But again, I believe that Paul brings this point up, not to argue against alcohol but to make a vivid comparison (in the next part of the verse when he instead says that we are to be “intoxicated with the Holy Spirit”

What does it mean to be intoxicated with the Holy Spirit and how is that going to help my marriage?

Well, I’m glad you asked. Guess what…

1.If you are intoxicated with the Holy Spirit you will do and say things that you would normally never have the courage to do if you were in your “worldly- mind” like...submitting to your husband!

2.If you are intoxicated with the Holy Spirit you find an attitude of boldness that you don’t normally possess to stand up and live out the call and the convictions that Christ has placed on your family regarding marriage.

3.If you are intoxicated with the Holy Spirit you will be less embarrassed of what the world will think of your actions even if they go against what the world believes a woman and a wife should be .

4.If you are intoxicated with the Holy Spirit you will make choices that you would otherwise NEVER be able to make and commit to keeping.

And, Ladies, if you think that you’ve got a lot to do to fulfill your part in all this, think long and hard about what the men are instructed to do:

"Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.

Our Christian husbands are called to lead our homes the way that Christ himself leads the church…talk about pressure, even more of a reason that we want to pray that our husbands will be “intoxicated with the Holy Spirit” too!

So, how can you change your marriage (as well as your whole life…) in just one step this week? Commit yourself to each and every day spending enough time in the word, in prayer, and in praise that you become “intoxicated by the Holy Spirit” and watch how much it changes you!

I pray pray that no matter what your marriage may look like, or how many anniversaries you may have had the privilege of celebrating that we all remember that there is nothing on this earth that can compare to how Christ loves us!

"Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven."